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Wagner’s big night fuels Huntley

It almost seemed the further away Jake Wagner shot from the more effective he was.

Connecting on a school record 9 3-pointers, Wagner scored a career-high 32 points in shooting Huntley past Prairie Ridge 76-51 in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division boys basketball action in Crystal Lake Friday night.

“I was just in a good rhythm tonight and my teammates did a great job of moving the ball and getting me the ball in good position to score,” said Wagner. “ I felt every shot was going in when I released it.”

Wagner, who made the first 6 3-pointers he attempted, was 9-of-12 from beyond the arc for the game. He scored 21 first-half points in leading Huntley (10-5, 4-0) to a 34-25 advantage over the Wolves at halftime.

“Jake certainly has the capability of hitting the 3-pointer,” said Huntley coach Marty Manning. “He just got to his spot all night and got in a great rhythm. He certainly had the hot hand..”

Down 9 at halftime, PR (4-12, 1-2) battled back and got to within 2 of the Red Raiders, 46-44, on 2 free throws by Jack Berg with 1:44 left in the third quarter.

That would be as close as the Wolves would get as Huntley scored the final 7 points including a 3-pointer at the buzzer by Tommy Regan that gave Huntley a 53-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

The Red Raiders scored the first 10 points of the final 8 minutes to conclude a 17-0 run over a 5-minute stretch. Wagner connected on 3 treys as Huntley grabbed a 63-44 lead with 4:44 remaining in the game.

PR broke the scoring drought on a 3-pointer by Ryan Gilbert to make the score 63-47.

Regan and Zach Gorney backed Wagner’s monster effort with 11 points each. Bryce Only scored 11 points, but dealt out 9 assists, 6 on 3-point baskets by Wagner.

“Wagner had a great game, but Only did a great job of drawing two and sometimes three defenders to him and then dished the ball to Wagner,” said PR coach Corky Card. “We used so much energy to fight back that every time we would get close they would make a shot, turn us over or get a big rebound. We could never get a good punch at them.”

Max Tucker led PR with 12 points while Michael Bradshaw and Steven Ticknor scored 10 apiece.

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